Hollands & Blair were beaten in the FA Vase at North Greenford and return to Southern Counties East Premier Division action on Saturday at home to Glebe
Published: 05:00, 26 October 2023
Hollands & Blair boss Scott Porter expects to be able to bring back some key men who missed their FA Vase defeat at North Greenford United.
Porter’s men were 1-0 up at North Greenford thanks to a goal from James Nurden but the home side fought back during deteriorating weather conditions in the second half and went onto win 3-2.
Experienced players Dan Ellis, Harry Brown, Jack Simon and Tom Walmsley were all missing last weekend and Porter hopes to have them back when they host leaders Glebe at Star Meadow this Saturday in the Southern Counties East Premier Division.
Blair hadn’t been past the FA Vase First Round before and Porter was hoping to make history at the club - only to be hurt by some familiar problems.
Porter said: “They played to the conditions, we wanted to win the toss and turn it around, because there is a big slope there and I knew the weather was coming in, we looked at that.
“When you go to places like that in those competitions, you have to take your chances and don’t make mistakes, we did the opposite.
“On another day Dean Grant should have had a hat-trick but came away without scoring and there were a couple of mistakes which are costing us and they are doing it all the time, square passes, not making the right pass at the right time and then we get punished out of possession, it was frustrating and disappointing.
“The goals conceded could have been avoided, that sums up our season at the minute, a bit of naivety, a bit of inexperience, not doing the same jobs for 90 minutes, people making the same mistakes and not playing to the conditions which we spoke about in depth before the game and at half-time.
“We had a good following there, with supporters on the coach. It was a long way and we felt like we let them down.
“We had four experienced players missing. The young kids have got to learn and they have to learn very quickly because they are making the same mistakes.
“I said to the boys before we need to make history because we hadn’t been past that stage before and I wanted to be the person to do it but we just fell short.
“At any level if you make mistakes you get punished, if you don’t take your chances it puts pressure on the whole side. It will be the same against Glebe.
“They have started the season well and they have good players and a good striker in Jamie Philpott. But I expect us to bounce back and I will have all four of those players back, which is promising.
“We need to get out of making these stupid mistakes and be more consistent for 90 minutes and we did it against VCD (in their recent 2-0 Kent Senior Trophy win). We took our chances and defended well. You have to do that every week. We will work on things and try and put it right for Saturday.”
Lordswood’s FA Vase journey also came to an end after they were beaten 1-0 at Roffey on Tuesday night, the hosts scoring their winner in the 90th minute through Scott Faber.
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Luke Cawdell